Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have lost ground during the past week, moving down by INR 500/mt ($7/mt) to INR 43,800/mt ($614/mt) ex-works with end-users sharply lowering fresh bookings, SteelOrbis learned on Monday, February 17.
End-users primarily among select automobile manufacturers have been cautiously bringing idle production lines back into operation, while sales of key feedstock are unlikely to see any significant increase in the immediate term and hence fresh bookings seen in earlier weeks have already been tapering off.
Data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed that, across all automobile categories, January 2020 sales were recorded at 1.739 million units, down almost 14 percent year on year.
Market sources said that, even though new passenger vehicle manufacturers, which had just commenced operations in India, were leading the demand, unless the decline in industry sales is firmly reversed, fresh bookings will not see any sustained rise.
At least two traders said that they had heard of deals by at least two western India-based steel mills, one integrated steel producer and another secondary re-roller, at discounts of around INR 500/mt ($7/mt) and this may become more widespread as other steel mills aggressively commence liquidating inventories ahead of closing their books on March 31.
$1 = INR 71.30